“Why were you talking to him?” He repeated his question.
“Um,” Devora said, casting her eyes about. Then she gestured toward a small bowl of water and a rag. “I was worried about him. He wasn’t moving, so I decided to clean off his face and make sure he was all right. When he woke up he wanted some water.
We–I mean, I–gave him a drink and some food. That’s all.”
No one said anything, and silence fell over the room. Calvin glared at her, then muttered, “Stupid women,” before turning to pull off his suit. A new stench–that of vomit–followed him. Seth tensed at Calvin’s tone; he had long since realized the man was a fool as well as a menace, but he learned a great deal about the Pilgrims from him.
In fact, he was pretty sure Calvin thought Seth was considering joining the cult. It was probably the only reason the man hadn’t turned on him yet, Seth reasoned.
As for Devora, he would keep a close eye on her. She seemed to be up to something, but he had no idea what interest she would have in Bragan. Maybe she was just trying to help the man; he did look pathetic slumped there on the floor.
“Well, don’t talk to him any more,” Seth finally said. “I’ll make sure he’s fed from now on.”
“What are you planning to do with him?” Devora asked bluntly.
“We’ll kill the bastard,” Calvin blustered. “He’s a murderer, he deserves to die.”
“Not so fast,” Seth broke in quickly. “Bragan, if you give us the information we’re looking for we may spare you.”
Bragan’s eyes grew wild at Seth’s words. He tensed his entire body, then spat at Seth like a snake.
“I’ll take that as a sign you don’t want to talk right now,” Seth said, sighing. His mission had grown far more complex than he’d ever anticipated. He’d come to the belt to collect information on a dangerous cult. Now he had a family to rescue, not to mention a band of revolutionary slaves running around. Not that he blamed them for fighting back; the working conditions in the belt were unbearable. Quietly he admitted some admiration for the men who’d risked their lives to fight back. He would have done the same in their situation. It created complications for the occupation and peace process, however. The Saurellians couldn’t afford to look weak right now.
“Calvin, let’s eat and we’ll talk about tomorrow,” he said finally.
“Woman, bring me my food,” Calvin bellowed and Sarai jumped. “And bakrah!”
He missed eating with Devora, Seth thought as he sat with Calvin that night. The man was telling him the Celestial Pilgrim’s theories on racial purity. Seth listened with one ear, keying a small pocket recorder to preserve everything the man said for the Saurellian intelligence analysts. Calvin’s theories were so delusional and violent that they made him feel ill at times; it was hard to stay focused. Devora and Sarai eventually took small plates of food in to the children. Seth wished deeply that he could go with them. The evening, like every evening with Calvin, crept by with agonizing slowness.
After an eternity, the disgusting man belched heavily and lumbered off to the bedroom.
Devora and Sarai cleaned up his mess, then Sarai retired.
“Can I feed Bragan some dinner?” Devora asked quietly once the three of them were alone in the room..
“I’ll do it,” Seth said gruffly, wishing he hadn’t come down on her so hard earlier.
She still refused to look at him. There’d been something different about her for days now, and he suspected it had something to do with the way he was making friends with Calvin. She didn’t trust him and she hated Calvin. For the thousandth time, he wished he could explain everything to her. But each time he almost broke down, he reminded himself that she was a former imperial citizen who hadn’t expressed any allegiance to the confederation. It was an unnecessary risk, one he had no right to take.
Once this was all over, he knew their life together would be hard. She might not want to live in Saurellian space. She would expect regular compensation, and he would have to keep a close eye on her. He’d have to be particularly careful around other men.
She was a pleasure worker, she wasn’t used to long-term fidelity. She would learn with time, though. He could make her happy; his family was both wealthy and of high social standing. He just needed to finish his mission and they’d be able to start over...
Dropping to one knee, Seth offered Bragan a bite of the hearty stew they’d had for dinner. Bragan took it and chewed it furiously. After several mouthfuls without incident, Seth let his attention wander. His gaze came to rest on Devora, who was sitting at the table studying some star charts. It seemed like such a long time since they’d looked at the charts together; she loved to learn about the geography of the quadrant and navigation, but since Calvin had been on board they hadn’t done anything together.
She was so beautiful just sitting there that it made his heart ache to watch her.
His reverie was broken by a warm splat against his face. Stifling a roar of surprise and anger, he slapped one hand to his cheek, pulling it away to see what hit him. Bragan was giggling at him. With disgust, Seth realized the man had spit chewed-up stew at him. He glared at the man, raising a hand to cuff him for his insolence. Then the absurdity of the situation hit him, and he dropped his arm slowly. He replaced the gag in Bragan’s mouth…
“That’s it for tonight, Bragan,” he said, forcing himself to ignore the incident. The man was clearly crazy. He rose to his feet, washed the mess off of his face and went to join Devora at the table. She didn’t look at him directly, but he could see her shoulders shuddering with suppressed laughter. “I’m glad I could do something to entertain you.”
“I’m sorry,” she said. “The look on your face was priceless.” She sobered after a minute, then asked him, “So what did you find today?”
“Well, it looks like things got pretty bloody,” Seth said, relaxing back in his chair. It felt good to sit and talk with her. It had been too long. “I did a scan of the bodies we found, and none of them were women or children. I don’t know what happened to them, though, so we have to assume they’re hostages.”
“Bragan said they sent them to the Discovery station,” Devora broke in quietly. Seth looked at her penetratingly, and Bragan gave a grunt of protest from his corner. “Bragan, he needs to know this,” she told the prisoner. “You don’t want them to think the slaves are more dangerous than they are, do you?”
“So you don’t think they’re dangerous?” Seth asked casually. Devora’s words surprised him; he’d thought she would have been more frightened by the idea of a slave revolt.
“Well, they were being held under terrible conditions,” she replied, looking away from him. “If you were a slave, wouldn’t you try to get away?”
“Maybe,” Seth said. “But I can’t approve of they way they slaughtered these men.”
Devora’s eyes flashed in anger. He didn’t understand why she cared so much.
“If they were just slaughtering people, why did they spare the women and children?
It sounds to me like the men got what they deserved. You’ve heard Calvin talk–he doesn’t even think of the slaves as human. I know why they did what they did.”
“You know why they did what they did? What does that mean, exactly? It’s not like you’ve ever been a slave,” Seth said, one eyebrow raised. Devora looked away.
“I guess I meant I can imagine what it would be like,” she said finally. Bragan gave a harsh bark of laughter from behind his gag as he sat tied in the corner, and Devora glared at him. “I’m tired of this. I want to go to sleep.”
“Fine,” Seth said mildly, promising himself he’d start this conversation with Devora again someday. He’d never seen her so flustered; she was definitely hiding something.